A man armed with a silver handgun assaulted a student enrolled in one of the University's pre-college summer programs at 10:45 p.m. July 19. The incident occurred on Brown Street between Charlesfield and Power streets, according to an alert e-mailed to the Brown community July 20 by the Department of Public Safety. The man approached the student from behind, punched him and demanded that the student place his wallet on the ground. After removing cash from the wallet, the suspect fled from the area.
"Although this appears to be an isolated incident, DPS takes every incident quite seriously by deploying additional patrol strategies," Chief of Police Mark Porter wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Saturday. "It is also important that individuals in the community continue to practice good safety measures," he wrote.
No credit cards or forms of identification were taken, Porter wrote. Porter did not disclose the amount of money stolen because "revealing the amount of cash puts unnecessary focus on the victim and may also encourage criminals," he wrote.
The Providence Police Department is investigating the incident. As of Saturday, Porter was unaware of any updates.
